NORAD Tracks Santa
By Teri


Ending #5: The Science of Christmas by Dr. Samantha Carter

Didn't buy any of the earlier endings? How about this one? Another possible ending . . .

Daniel was heading towards Jack's office when inspiration hit. It wasn't Jack he should be talking to, it was Sam. If there was even the remotest possibility that Santa was an Air Force secret project, Sam would level with him. Jack would only give him a sarcastic comeback and pull the classified act, but Sam would take his question seriously and tell him the truth.

Daniel approached Sam's lab door and knocked.

"Come in," Sam called from within her lab.

"Hey Sam," Daniel gave a hesitant smile. Just a moment ago he thought this was a good idea, but now looking at her could he really ask her if Santa was real?

"Is something wrong?" Sam asked noticing Daniel's distraction.

"Oh, um," Daniel pushed his glasses up, "I, uh, had something . . . " Daniel stopped and took a deep breath and spoke fast enough that Sam would have had a hard time following him if she weren't use to a nervous Daniel. "I had something I wanted to ask you, but you know what, never-mind."

Daniel started to turn and leave, but Sam stopped him. "Daniel?"

She noticed a paper in his hand. She noticed that when he spoke he had glanced at it several times. She leaned over and grabbed the paper from him. "So what do we have here?"

"Hey, give that back."

Sam just glared at him and he relented.

Sam began to read the memo to herself:

North American Aerospace Defense Command
NORAD Confirms Santa Sleigh Test Flight
North Pole and NORAD officials have reached an unprecedented agreement allowing the men and women of NORAD to conduct a full-blown test flight with Santa and all nine reindeer on December 18, 2002. . . ."

Sam stopped and looked at Daniel, "very funny, Daniel. Har Har, did the Colonel put you up to this?"

"No, well, I mean if it is Jack's idea of a joke, I'm not in on it. I found that memo on his desk," Daniel explained. "I came to you because, well, since I've been at the SGC I've seen more than I ever would have believed and I had a silly notion that maybe Santa was one of them. Look, like I said never-mind."

"Wait, Daniel. Look I can understand where you are coming from. This seems like a joke to me, but let's look at this logically and apply a little science, ok?" Sam gave him a small smile and gestured to the open seat

Daniel seemed to debate with himself before sitting down.

"Let's finish the memo first."

The NORAD Santa sleigh-test flight will begin with lift off at the North Pole; NORAD radar will detect Santa mere seconds after his lift off.

"Okay," Sam thought for a moment. "We do have radar that could reach that area. The North Warning System provides surveillance of the northern edge of North America through Arctic airspace. A series of 15 long-range radars and 39 short-range radars form a 4,800-Km-long and 320 Km-wide "tripwire" that would allow us to find anything flying in from the Artic region."

"So, plausible?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah."

After that, Santa will zip over the Northwest Territories to the Yukon. About 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the Yukon-Alaskan border, two CF-18s from Canada's Air Force will intercept and escort Santa to Alaska where they will hand off to two American F-15s.

"CF-18 Hornets are used in the Canadian NORAD region. There are also F-15E Strike Eagles in the area that could be used. She is a sweet ride too," Sam added with a big grin, "capable of 2.5 Mach. She has a versatile pulse-Doppler radar system that is used to look up at high-flying targets and down at low-flying targets without being confused by ground clutter. It can detect and track aircraft and small high-speed targets at distances beyond visual range down to close range, and at altitudes down to tree-top level."

"So, not that I understood all of that, but I gather it would be a good choice for tracking a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer?"

"Well," Sam stopped a moment, "yeah."

The F-15s will fly with Santa for 200 miles, at which time Santa will increase his speed to Christmas-Eve-Velocity en route back to the North Pole.

"Now velocity would be a tricky issue. Let's see . . . " Sam began to mutter to herself as she started scribbling in her notebook and poking her calculator. "The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901.55 mile, but the circumference from pole to pole is a bit shorter at 24,859.82 miles. . . . The total surface area of the Earth is about 197,000,000 square miles . . . less if you only count inhabited areas . . . Travels East to West, time zones, etc. . . . ah about 30-ish hours to work. . . . Santa would have to be going at least a 1,000 miles per second, not including deceleration and acceleration. That is a little over Mach 23.1 Apollo 10 reached Mach 37.6 upon reentry, but our fastest manned craft, the X-15, goes 6.72 Mach. The F-302 also hits Mach 6, the early designs for the F-303 look like the ship could theoretically go as much as Mach 8. . . ."

"Sam could anything survive at those speeds?" Daniel wondered.

"Well, at about 1,000 miles per second . . . . Holy Hannah, that would mean the reindeer and the sleigh would be absorbing 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second. Centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's on Santa. The Sonic bomb, wow, the sound intensity level on that would be – wow. The pressure wave alone . . . "

"So, the answer is no?" Daniel concluded.

"I don't see how. Yeah, that would be a big NO."

"Is there anyway? Anyway at all?" Daniel looked at her with a mix of curosity and and expectation.

Sam chewed the side of her lip before she shook her head no. Although Daniel had the impression that he just gave her a new puzzle to work on, which meant she might well solve the problem.

From lift off until Santa's return to the North Pole, NORAD will test the satellite systems to track the infrared signature of Rudolph's bright nose.

"Yeah, we would have the technology to do that if the light energy output was sufficient, which if it could guide a sleigh, I imagine it would be," Sam hypothesized.

"Really?"

"Yeah"

The famous fourth method of Santa Tracking - SantaCams - will not be used in the Santa sleigh-test as they are currently being deployed around the world in preparation for Christmas Eve.

"I don't know what a SantaCam is, but I imagine it is some sort of viewing system. With today's technology, nothing in that realm would surprise me."

Daniel had to agree with her on that point.

"Still there are a few things that bother me," Sam got up and paced around her lab table. "I don't know anything about reindeer, but they don't seem the most aerodynamic to me. I suppose there could be an unknown species, but it seems unlikely. I don't know how to get pass flying reindeer. The only other issue is that there is no land at the North Pole and we've had submarines pass under the spot. No sign of Santa reported."

"Your conclusion?"

"Well, I suppose Santa could be a Goa'uld using some sort of Ancient technology, that could account for the issues with Santa's velocity and how he doesn't burst into flames," Sam decided.

"Yeah, but if this memo is to be believed the Air Force has met Santa and tracks the sleigh. It would be hard to hide advanced technology, especially since we opened the Stargate," Daniel pointed out a hole in Sam's theory.

"I agree."

"I suppose he could be an ascended," Daniel thought.

"No, non-interference."

"Right, so . . ."

Sam frowned, "I can only conclude Daniel that Santa Claus is a scientific impossibility. It must one of the Colonel's jokes or perhaps a gag memo sent to him?"

"Yeah, I feel silly for even suspecting it could have been true." Daniel smiled and stood getting ready to leave. "Thanks, Sam."

"Anytime, Daniel," she gave him a half smile as she watched him walk through her office door. She called after him, "you know it might not hurt to research Santa from the older sources. Treat him like you would researching a myth that might be true."

He turned and flashed her a smile, "I might just do that. Thanks, Sam."

After Daniel had been gone a few minutes, Sam looked up because she felt like she was being watched. She wasn't surprised when she looked up and saw Colonel O'Neill leaning on her door jam.

"Sir?"

"A scientific impossibility?" he asked grinning at her.

She should have known. Walter probably called Jack to watch the monitors the minute Daniel came in asking about Santa. "It may not be scientifically possible, Sir, but with a little Christmas magic . . . "

"You're learning, Carter. You're learning." Jack smiled at the Major "I'm glad I let you in on our little secret."

Sam snorted, "I hacked my way in the Santa Tracking systems up at NORAD and found out on my own. You had to fill me in to do damage control so I didn't expose the secret trying to find out more."

"Yeah, well," he smiled at her again, "someone must have said something that made you look in the first place. I wonder who it could have been?"

He handed her a small candy cane with a wink as he left her office humming the tune to Santa Claus is coming to town. "He knows if you've been bad or good . . . "

Remember Santa is beyond Science!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, SAFE NEW YEAR

Teri 12/23/06